DeSantis Battles the Teachers Union

Let’s hope Florida's governor succeeds with his plan to remove the government as the unions’ bagman.

Years ago when I was teaching, I asked A.J. Duffy, the president of United Teachers of Los Angeles at the time, why teachers weren’t responsible for paying their own dues. He replied, “They might forget.” I didn’t respond but I knew that some of my colleagues were thinking what I was thinking.

Forget? No. Choose not to pay? Yes.

In California and throughout much of the country, union dues are deducted by the local school district from teachers’ paychecks, just as federal and state withholding taxes are. The school district then turns the money over to the local teachers’ union. The union, a private organization, doesn’t pay a penny for the transactions; it’s the taxpayers who foot the bill for this service. In fact, payroll deduction is de rigueur for most public-employee unions. (As an NRA and AAA member, I pay what I owe via credit card, and government is not involved. Why should teachers’ unions be treated any differently?)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to stop this abuse in the Sunshine State. At a recent event in Orlando, he asserted that the government shouldn’t play a role in deducting teacher union dues. He explained that planned legislation would create more of a guarantee that money would wind up in teachers’ pockets and not be “frittered away by interest groups who get involved into the school system,” adding that he thinks that he will get legislative support for his idea.

Elisabeth Messenger, interim CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment, a group focused on educating employees on their union rights, agrees with DeSantis.

“Automatic dues deduction uses government resources to make it easier for unions to recruit and retain members and creates confusion for workers who may think their workplace union is endorsed by their employer or that membership is required by their employer,” Messenger said. “In signing this legislation, Governor DeSantis would be taking a huge step in protecting teachers’ private information and ensuring the Florida state government is not a middleman in funding partisan politics.”

The Florida Education Association is, not surprisingly, very unhappy with the DeSantis plan. In a statement, the union said, “The past few weeks, FEA has been asking educators to fill out a wish list with what they’re hopeful for in 2023. Common themes have been less testing, more resources and support, more stability—all things that would help us better serve our students and alleviate the teacher and staff shortage. Gov. DeSantis, however, appears to prioritize politics. Only a Grinch would attack teachers’ freedom to join in [sic] union to advocate for our students and schools.”

Freedom to join? Hardly.

DeSantis, who was reelected by a nearly 20-point margin in November, also indicated that he supports setting a threshold for unions to represent teachers, which would involve at least 50 percent of teachers being members of their local union.

While I am in full support of DeSantis’ “Freedom Blueprint,” he could have gone even further. Clearly, the government should not be collecting union dues, becoming, in effect, the union’s bagman. But why should 51 percent of the teachers in a school district be able to drag the dissenting 49 percent into collective bargaining negotiations? I maintain that those who don’t want to join a union should not be forced to be a part of the...

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